Oh Happy Miracle...

Anonymous asked: Your daughters lashes are INSANE! She totally has your eyes. Good job mommy!! Keep the pictures coming.

Wow! Thank you so much! Funny you should send this because I was just going through some pictures and ran across the one below. Her lashes are pretty out of control. Just about every day someone makes a comment about Eliana’s eyes, so for you to compare mine to hers, well that’s the sweetest compliment if I say so myself :) I’ve mentioned before, and I want to reiterate, I DO NOT PUT LATISSE ON MY CHILD’S EYES!

DearTommyLee asked: Hello! I know this is a throw back but I love the little touches you put on E’s nursery. Just gorgeous. Since shes been born and here for some time now have you added any other little touches or unique things to her nursery? I don’t have my own little bundle of poop, tears, smiles, and slobbery joy yet but I am always looking at photos for inspiration! :)

We honestly don’t spend a lot of time in Eliana’s room (sad!) Her room is upstairs, away from everything, so we really just go upstairs to take a bath and then put her to bed. With that said, the one thing that we did change were her curtains! I started off with white curtains, without even considering how idiotic that was because the sun is pretty fierce in the morning. So recently we purchased dark blue curtains and I’ve definitely noticed a difference in her sleep.

Anonymous asked: First off, just wanted to say I love reading your blog.. However, do you ever worry how your daughter is going to react when she’s a teen and realizes her entire babyhood is on the Internet?

Thanks!! To be quite honest I’m not sure how to answer this question. This is really something we’ll have to cross when the time comes. I can tell you though that I’m pretty confident with my choices on these here internets. I don’t put anything too personal. I know where to draw the line and I feel like I respect my daughter enough to know what needs to remain private and what I feel comfortable putting out there for fun. This is supposed to be fun right?! :)

diynotkelly asked: Are you planning to go back to work, and if so, when? What was your job before you had Eliana?

I’ve mentioned this before, but don’t have the time to go searching through tumblrs awful search engine :)  I’ve worked from home for a little over 4 years. I work in the legal software consulting industry helping lawyers with their practice management needs. I’ve literally had no maternity leave, but luckily my job is not demanding. In fact, these days, I hardly work at all. Eliana is my number one priority at this point, especially since we do not have any childcare in place. Juggling work and raising a child is almost impossible when you have zero assistance.

Thanks for the questions, and if you have any of your own, please ask here!

~K

PS- Eliana’s 6 month checkup is tomorrow! Yippee!

What a whirlwind of unconditional love/commitment/excitement/exhaustion/life lessons these past six months have been. No one and I mean NO ONE can prepare you for what a little life can bring. To say I have been tested would be putting it lightly. Being a mommy is life changing. Period. There have been so many highs, so many lows. There have been days where I feel clueless, overly challenged, but most importantly madly in love. It’s true. It makes almost no sense how one can be overly exhausted/stressed/confused but at the end of the day want to eat your child’s inner thigh because the love you feel is so yummy you can’t stand it.

Some days I don’t know how I do it and wonder if I’m doing it right, but then you do this amazing little thing, where you nuzzle your head into my chest, or your eyes light up when I enter the room. You reach up for me to hold you. You moan when I walk away. You do a new trick after I spend countless minutes trying to teach you how to do it yourself. You make the cutest little screeching noise when I sing to you. You giggle when I tickle you…

In these moments, the doubt washes away and I realize how awesome this job really is. I am teaching you about life. How to be you. And so far I think I’m doing a pretty badass job.

At six months you are growing fast and furious. Your cheeks are filling just right, and your belly is pouring over your leggings as it should. Your focus consists of movement these days. I can see the determination in your eyes when you push off of something. You’re within days of crawling and after yesterday’s event, dare I say, walking.

Your personality is HUGE! It takes a lot to upset you. Our days are full of ginormous giggly smiles and determination. You’re always looking to try something new. Learn something bigger…

There’s something about you that radiates the room. You have this presence that I’m finding more and more people gravitate towards.

You’re happy.

You welcome people into your space without hesitation. You love with your whole being.

Keep up the awesome. Keep up the happy. Keep up just being you.

~mom.

(photos by Melissa Jordan)

You did something pretty amazing today.

My friend Lisa came over and we were sitting on the floor playing with you. Mommy decided to let go of your hands just to see what you would do. After a few attempts and wobbly baby legs, you stood straight up. We’re talking COMPLETELY on your own and stood for about 5 seconds until you jumped towards me.

My heart skipped a beat. You’re just one day shy of 6 months and you’re already learning to stand on your own!!

I’m so proud of you. Keep up the good work Stinky.

~mom.

This definitely happened yesterday…in November I might add!

We’re going to miss you warm weather, so plan to soak you all up this afternoon as well!

~K

PS- THANK YOU SO MUCH for all the comments about Baby Led Weaning. I’m actively researching now and I’m about 99% sure this is the route we’re going to take! Bring on the mess!

A little over two weeks ago Eliana started to show an extreme interest in everything I ate or drank. She started grabbing anything and everything in my hands and would get frustrated when I pulled it away from her.

Originally I was going to wait until six months, but I feel like this was her natural way of asking me for something more than just breast milk.  So with a lot of selfish hesitation (my baby is growing up!!!! Boo!), I decided on November 5th that we were going to introduce her to pureed bananas!

As you can see she took it without much hesitation or excitement. I thought there would be some sort of transition period where she would hate it or not really know how to swallow it, but she took it like a champ and from day 1 we had a happy eater.

I’ve read that you should only introduce one food for a few days with just about 1tsp-1TBS once a day, to see if the baby has an allergic reaction. I stretched it out a bit longer and only gave her bananas for about a week and then this past week, sweet potatoes.

Today we actually introduced avocados and yes there was a little gagging, but after a second of swishing it around in her mouth, she loved it!

So far I haven’t really found a need to use a blender because I haven’t made her food in bulk to freeze it. I just mash it up with a fork and then add some water or breast milk. The texture is exactly the same as if I were to use a blender, but half the hassle :)

As hard as this transition has been for me, I knew the timing was perfect. Eliana was practically begging for it! Now she grabs the spoon from me and makes the cutest little face while she curls her tongue and nom nom nom’s on her food.

Who knew feeding your baby could be so fun!

Any suggestions on other foods to introduce? Any tips? I love hearing your advice, so please feel free to offer any suggestions!

~K

UPDATE: Since posting this, a few of you have recommended Baby Led Weaning. I’ve never even considered this before!! If you have experience please let me know what you started with and any other information, good or bad. I’m very interested to learn more!!

Yesterday you attempted to crawl and this morning you stood up and played with your Move and Groove Table ALL BY YOURSELF!

Who is this little girl?!

Guess it’s time to shampoo the carpets and safety proof the house.

You’re about to go mobile!

(single tear)

~mom

Check out the new layout!

Hope y’all like it. I’ve been meaning to do an update for some time but obviously I’ve been a little occupied :) And not to toot my own horn but I did all of the necessary coding myself— without software developing hubby’s help.

Melissa took the headline photo this past weekend. It’s a little sneak peek for Eliana’s 6 month photos! I cannot wait to share them!

Speaking of Melissa, she just posted a Judgmental Baby (Like Conan O’Brien’s Judgmental Pets bit) piece over at Babble, and you may recognize my cutie giving what we like to call the side eye.

Love it!

If you haven’t checked out her posts over there, she’s doing a Baby’s First Year Blog on Arlo’s life. It’s great stuff. Go check it out and tell her I sent ya!

~K

Thank God for my parents…

After my post today about being completely sleep deprived, I managed to lose it in the car, crying my eyes out. Then some lady cuts me off— poor lady.

I push down on the horn for a good 10 seconds, drop a couple of swear-bombs and then I may or may not have lifted a finger— twice.

I show up at my parents, completely distraught. My mom sees the tears in my eyes and says she’s taking Eliana with her mall-walkin.

Y’all, I got an entire hour and fifteen minutes (to be exact) to myself.

It was glorious.

And to top it off, my dad has been walking around outside, singing to Eliana in her carrier for about 2 hours now.

Now I’m refreshed and ready to play with this silly little girl until it’s bedtime at 8:00, then we do it all over again….

But it’s so worth it. Check out that face. Ahhhhh, the faces.

~K

Please tell me I’m not the only one with a child who doesn’t sleep?

I need to be reassured before I go crazy— like literally.

She falls asleep with no problem, but is up almost every 2-3 hrs after that.

I’ve tried letting her cry or giving the paci and nothing works unless I breastfeed.

I’m sooo soooo soooo sleepy. In love beyond the moon, but sleepy.

~K

Today I am thankful for this weather.

Today I am thankful to sit outside and play with the cutest little girl I know.

Today I am thankful for you, Eliana.

In fact, every day I am thankful for you.

Love you Stinky Stinker.

~K

PS- that cute little knitted hat is from my moms best friend, Debbie. Thank you Debbie for taking the time to create such an amazing piece for Eliana.